As used herein, “static mixing” refers to apparatuses and methods for, mixing of fluids and entrained materials that use stationary elements to accomplish the mixing, as opposed to dynamic elements such as paddle wheels, propellers, stirring bars and the like.
As used herein, the term “food materials” should be taken to mean any and all biologically digestible organic materials, without limit; the term “food process waste water” should be taken to mean excess water and by-products, components beyond just water itself, used in the manufacture and/or use of food materials, which water must be treated to remove a portion of the dissolved and/or suspended food materials before being either sent to a waste water treatment facility or landfill, or otherwise discharged to the environment.
Foods and potables manufacturing and handling typically require large volumes of input process water and generate substantial levels of biologically digestible materials dissolved and suspended in their waste process water. Additionally, such waste water may be substantially acidic or alkaline. When directed without pre-treatment to municipal waste water treatment facilities, such waste water can place a heavy and costly load on municipal waste treatment facilities. As a result, many communities impose a substantial cost on companies that generate such process waste waters during their operations. It is known to monitor the level of food materials in food processing waste water discharged to a municipal system and to levy a sewer surcharge on the food processing companies accordingly. Many of these companies are relatively modest in capitalization and output and thus need a relatively inexpensive method and associated apparatus for pre-treating of process waste water to remove a substantial percentage of suspended food materials therefrom before the process waste water is discharged. Fortuitously, the total volume of process waste water generated by many such operations is relatively small and therefore is amenable to treatment by a method and apparatus in accordance with the present invention. Applications directed to water reuse, such as in agricultural applications where treated waste water is needed to water crops, feed livestock, and replenish aquifers, can also be supported by the present invention.
For some of these applications, to reduce solids and solvated materials to acceptable levels it may be necessary to use membrane filtration systems, such as ultra-filtration systems, nanofiltration systems, reverse osmosis filtration systems, and the like. Membrane systems may also be necessary when discharging waste water to leach fields to prevent their fouling by yeast and other large organic materials. The use of such membrane systems requires prior stage treatment of the waste water to remove solids and other large materials that would otherwise foul the membrane systems.
Larger scale operations can also be supported by scaling up with multiple modules of the present invention.
Note: “Biological Oxygen Demand” (BOD), also known as Biochemical Oxygen Demand, is the amount of oxygen needed by aerobic microorganisms to decompose all the digestible organic matter in a sample of water; it is used in the eco-sciences as a measure of organic pollution. As used herein, the term “BOD” also means more generally the unit volume load, both dissolved and suspended, of such organic material in waste water.
Further, Total Suspended Solids (TSS) is a water quality measurement which, as used herein, is expressed as the unit volume load of suspended solids, both organic and inorganic, in water. It is listed as a conventional pollutant in the U.S. Clean Water Act.